With friends like these...

Okay, Democrat Phil Angelides has some things going against him in his bid for governor of California. His opponent is not only an incumbent, not only as much of a Democrat as he is a Republican (a good thing in a heavily left-leaning state), he's Arnold Schwarzenegger for cryin' out loud! And Phil himself is apprently not the most exciting guy in the world. But at least he can count on the endorsement of one of the most beloved Democrats in the state, can't he? Well...

Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown told a Sacramento reporter that he likes hanging with Arnold, and said "He's the best in the business when he gets out around regular people and just sells himself as Arnold."

And how does Brown feel about his party's candidate? "Phil is a smart guy. But he doesn't look good on TV and doesn't sound good on radio. They need to keep him in places like Dinuba and Chico, where they don't have modern communications with the rest of the state and no one can see or hear him."

Ouch! I'm not sure if the towns of Dinuba and Chico have phones or newspapers but they better have a lot of voters and an efficient public horse-drawn carriage system to get them all to the polls if they are the key to unseating the Governator (no word on how they plan to communicate the results to the rest of the state). WSJ's John Fund quips that Brown seems to be proposing a candidate protection program to hide him from the voters.

Let's hope that Angelides is good enough, and is smart enough, because doggonit, people sure don't seem to like him!